Sunflowers are annuals with showy, daisylike flower-heads that are usually 2-4 inches across and bright yellow (though occasionally red). Tall and course, the plants have creeping or tuberous roots and large, bristly leaves. Today, varieties have even been developed for small spaces and containers.

Most sunflowers are remarkably tough and easy to grow as long as the soil is not waterlogged. Most are heat- and drought-tolerant. They make excellent cut flowers and many are attractive to bees and birds. Smaller plants with big-time flower power. Striking compact, low-growing sunflower fills vase after beautiful vase with luminous, long-stemmed, brown-eyed, golden flowers. Heavy-branching, floriferous 20-30” tall plants will keep your home aglow with joyous blooms.

Soil: Find a well-drained location, and prepare your soil by digging an area of about 2-3 feet in circumference to a depth of about 2 feet.

Water: Sunflowers do like a lot of water and thrive when given a regular daily watering. However you want to be careful not to over water as it can lead to root rot and may loosen the soil too much causing the sunflower to fall. Sunflowers are very drought tolerant so will survive if you don’t water them for a short while. Even when they look completely dehydrated and half dead they can recover quickly with a good drink.

Temprature: soil temperature :55 to 60 degrees F

Fertilizer: Too high nitrogen is not good, and make sure you have potassium and phosphorus in the soil.

Care:

It s easiest to sow seeds directly into the soil after the danger of spring frost is past.

Ideally, the soil temperature has reached 55 to 60 degrees F.

Plant the large seeds no more than 1 inch deep and 4 to 6 inches apart in well-dug, loose soil after it has thoroughly warmed, from mid-April to late May.

A light application of fertilizer mixed in at planting time will encourage strong root growth to protect them from blowing over in the wind.

Give plants plenty of room, especially for low-growing varieties that will branch out.

Make rows about 30 inches apart.

(For very small varieties, plant closer together.

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When the plants are six inches high, thin them to two feet.

If you see birds scratching around for the seeds, spread netting over the planted area until seeds germinate.

Harvesting: You can begin to enjoy the bright sunflower blossoms several months after you planted seeds, but you will have to wait another month or so before you can eat sunflower seeds.
Although the exact timetable varies among cultivars, harvest time usually rolls round toward the end of summer.
For cut flowers, remove 1 foot or more of stem with the flower and plunge it into hot water immediately to draw out air.
For edible seeds, you must harvest the flowers after the leaves shrivel but before the seasonal rains.
The flower heads with 1 to 2 feet of stalk must spend another month hung in a dry, well-aired spot before you extract the seeds.

Care:

Water plants deeply but infrequently to encourage deep rooting.

Feed plants only sparingly; over-fertilization can cause stems to break in the fall.

Tall species and cultivars require support.

Bamboo stakes are a good choice for any plant that has a strong, single stem and needs support for a short period of time.

UseCulinary use:

The edible sunflower seeds can be eaten raw, cooked, roasted, or dried and ground for use in bread or cakes, as a snack.

The seeds and the roasted seed shells have been used as a coffee substitute.

Oil can be extracted and used for cooking and soap making.

Yellow dyes have been made from the flowers, and black dyes from the seeds.

The residue oil cake has been used as cattle and poultry feed, and high quality silage can be made from the whole plant.

The buoyant pith of the stalk has been used in the making of life preservers.